ENC resident recalls King's speech at the 1963 March on Washington

Delilah Marrow holds close the Martin Luther King Jr. buttons she has gathered from various events, including the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.

Zach Frailey/Kinston Free Press

By Jessika Morgan, Kinston Free Press

Published: Monday, January 21, 2013 at 02:30 PM.

JACKSONVILLE — She didn’t care about the unforgiving sun beaming from above as she marched elbow to elbow with 250,000 other people in Washington, D.C.

Rallying behind a church-made banner, Delilah Marrow rallied to the National Mall — then only occupied by a fountain instead of its many monuments today — on Aug. 28, 1963, to hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

“My heart was pounding,” Marrow, 82, said. “I was just so proud to hear the messages as he was speaking.”

Last week at her Jacksonville home, she wore a pin on her blouse from the march — a day when she never grew tired from walking and standing because she was too excited to hear King’s message and do something about it.

Nearly a half-century ago, she said King spoke about jobs, freedom and equality in what became one of America’s most renowned speeches.

Marrow said the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was about educating the country on unemployment and equal rights and charging Americans to take action.

“We needed to get busy,” Marrow said of King’s message. “I felt like I could do something about the situation. It was like he put everybody at ease. He put me at ease.”

JACKSONVILLE — She didn’t care about the unforgiving sun beaming from above as she marched elbow to elbow with 250,000 other people in Washington, D.C.

Rallying behind a church-made banner, Delilah Marrow rallied to the National Mall — then only occupied by a fountain instead of its many monuments today — on Aug. 28, 1963, to hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

“My heart was pounding,” Marrow, 82, said. “I was just so proud to hear the messages as he was speaking.”

Last week at her Jacksonville home, she wore a pin on her blouse from the march — a day when she never grew tired from walking and standing because she was too excited to hear King’s message and do something about it.

Nearly a half-century ago, she said King spoke about jobs, freedom and equality in what became one of America’s most renowned speeches.

Marrow said the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was about educating the country on unemployment and equal rights and charging Americans to take action.

“We needed to get busy,” Marrow said of King’s message. “I felt like I could do something about the situation. It was like he put everybody at ease. He put me at ease.”

She was working in D.C. at the time of the speech, having earned a business administration degree from North Carolina A&T State University in 1952. She was a stay-at-home mom of three daughters for 10 years before being recruited to teach in Wilmington.

Accustomed to traveling because of her military husband, she took a job in D.C. government where she eventually started monitoring school system contracts and data. She retired in 1986 and moved to Jacksonville in 2009.

As a 32-year-old woman who participated in the 1963 march, she said she felt out of harm’s way. With how the country’s violence has heightened, she said she would feel differently now.

“The streets were crowded, but people were very friendly,” Marrow recalled. “There was no fear of anyone hurting you or anything like that.”

Her home is filled with pictures and trinkets of President Barack Obama and the first family. She thought about attending this week’s presidential inauguration, but said she’d likely be fearful because of “the way things are now.”

Marrow has seen many societal changes in her 82 years.

She grew up in Maysville in a time when many people didn’t have cars. Before mobile phones appeared, people still had to travel to deliver messages or news to each other.

She says the “disconnect” across communities today can be attributed to technology.

“We don’t talk to each other because everybody’s texting or on a social network,” Marrow said. “I think (technology) is where the whole communication breakdown began. It might not be true, but that’s my thought about it.”

Marrow is one of 10 children who grew up on a Maysville farm; only she and her younger sister are still living. She said her father didn’t have a formal education, but was very industrious and creative.

She remembered the division between black and white people as a child and teenager, growing up in a segregated South. Marrow said they had separate school busses and bathrooms.

“It was always dirty,” she said of the restrooms designated for black people.

Among MLK’s many dreams voiced in 1963 included the conversion of laws separating young children.

He spoke, “I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama … will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers,” in the wake of the racially motivated bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four young black girls.

“He had an electrifying voice,” Marrow recalled.

She believes there’s still work to be done to unite communities, citing how all children can play together today and have no sense of separation as “parts of his dream (being) realized.”

“Some people are striving to make his dream a reality,” she said. “I think in terms of President Obama himself, he has a dream.”

Marrow worked for both of Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012.

She said if King were alive today, he would address issues the country faces, such as war.

“I think he would have been a great mediator to bring some things about,” Marrow said.

Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.